Town Square

District needs to root out bad behavior, moms say

Original post made
on Jan 18, 2013

Dirty dancing, drugs and foul language — three mothers with teens enrolled in Mountain View High School are concerned that the school district is not consistently enforcing its rules against drug and alcohol use, immodest dancing and music, profanity and inappropriate dress.

Posted by NW Resident
a resident of North Whisman
on Jan 18, 2013 at 2:02 pm

MVPD already assigns 2 officers to MVHS dances to provide security and patrol the parking lots before, during and after the dances. Mr. Mathiesen and the other deans and staff seem to do a pretty good job of running these events, from what I've observed when my kids went to school there.

I also agree with Mr. Groves that a survey of 34 students is hardly a representive sample of the full student body, so more data would be helpful, and the wording of the questions might also be important.

Posted by Tabitha
a resident of another community
on Jan 19, 2013 at 12:18 am

Having presented at the meeting, I can say that the idea of drug dogs at dances was one very small suggestion that actually originated from the principal in earlier conversations. The majority of our concerns and recommendations are not even mentioned in this article. The presentation was a MUCH broader conversation in which, as parents, we were communicating our support for the Behavioral Policies at MVHS and asking the administration and the board to do a better job at making sure that these policies are actually being enforced on campus to ensure the best possible learning environment for our kids. We addressed profanity in the classroom (both by students and teachers), the lack of consistent dress code enforcement, and our perception of the lack of anti-drug messaging on campus. We also went over disturbing school dance behavior as reported by students as well as the principal. In addition, we asked the MVLA school district to not opt out of a very afforable and widely used state-wide student health and drug survey that other districts like Palo Alto continue to participate in. This presentation wasn't about what the students are or are not doing, but rather about our expectations that the adults at our school do the challenging work of upholding the behavioral policies that all our kids and parents sign off on when they enroll at MVHS. Behavioral Policies exist in order to create focussed and respectful school environments where education can flourish. We didn't write the Behavioral Policies and we weren't asking to change them. We were simply asking for them to be enforced by the adults who are hired and appointed to teach and to administer at the school. As parents who are highly invested in our schools and in all the children in our community, we feel these are important issues and that we owe it to our kids and to the community at large to make our best efforts.